The present disclosure relates generally to apparatus and methods for catheters, and more specifically, for a reentry catheter device.
Chronic total occlusions (CTOs) are a common finding in patients with coronary artery disease. Treatment of coronary CTOs remains a challenging obstacle, posing a considerable barrier to achieving successful complete revascularization. The choice of revascularization includes endovascular treatment, which is a very complicated and expensive surgery.
Endovascular treatment of CTOs is increasing while the recanalization through CTO remains challenging. The most common method for crossing occlusions uses hydrophilic wires and catheters in the subintimal plane for a portion of the occlusion. One of the primary limitations to successful treatment of CTOs is reported to be the failure to re-enter the true lumen after subintimal crossing of the occlusion.
An additional limitation in some cases is that the true lumen reentry is not achieved until subintimal passage to a site significantly remote from the level of vessel lumen patency, which causes subintimal angioplasty or stenting to extend beyond the occluded segment. Further, a reentry device may cause unnecessary trauma during the reentry procedure. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an inexpensive apparatus and a relatively simple method for re-entering the true lumen at the desired region close to the occlusion without unnecessary trauma.